Today I welcome romantic thriller author Jessica James, and her book, Deadline. Just from the blurb, you can tell it will be hard to put down. A Navy SEAL, a strong heroine, and lots of action. Sounds like one I'm going to put on my Kindle.

Blurb

He’s a relentless homicide detective. She’s an uncompromising journalist.Neither desires to work together—but they’ll never uncover the truth alone.

Landing a front-page headline isn’t why reporter Caitlin Sparks is investigating a string of suspicious deaths connected to the U.S. State Department. She has a personal stake in finding the killer.

Detective Blake Madison has a connection to the murders too, and will risk anything to uncover the truth. But a journalist is the last person he’d rely on to help him solve a crime—especially one whose trail of evidence leads back to him.

Joining forces becomes essential as the body count continues to grow. Someone powerful doesn't want the truth to come out—and will stop at nothing to make sure no one talks.

On the run with nowhere to turn, the couple devises a plan to expose the killer. The risk is great and the chance of success small, but the ultimate outcome is something neither one of them envisioned.

Deadline is an IndieBRAG Medallion Winner.

Excerpt

With no back exit, Catilin’s emergency plan was to go out the upstairs window to the porch roof, and then drop down into the yard. There was really no other choice. Even with her slight build, she didn’t think she’d fit through the window over the kitchen sink, and the one in the living room had been painted shut years ago.

Sliding open the upstairs pane, Caitlin could hear movement and see lights reflecting from the front of the house, but saw nothing in the inky darkness to the rear. She crawled out onto the porch roof and remained still, half expecting to see the beam of a flashlight illuminate her hiding place. When the sound of the banging on the door began again, she closed the window and laid flat on her stomach in case anyone was watching.

Calm down.

After taking a few deep breaths, she pulled herself to the edge of the roof and tried to figure out how she was going to lower herself to the ground ten feet below. Why hadn’t she practiced this during daylight hours?

Deciding it was now or never, she held her breath as if she were jumping into deep water and slid her body off the roof. Dropping like a brick, she collapsed onto the ground and lay still to catch her breath and listen for any sign of disturbance.

Nothing. All was quiet except for the whooshing in her ears from her pounding heart. She scrambled up and had just started to turn around to run when two hands grabbed her from out of the darkness in a vice-like grasp. One of them wrapped around her waist and the other covered her mouth, stifling the scream that rose in her throat.

Jessica James believes in honor, duty, and true love—and that’s what she writes about in her award-winning novels that span the ages from the Revolutionary War to modern day.She is a three-time winner of the John Esten Cooke Award for Southern Fiction, and has won more than a dozen other literary awards, including a Readers' Favorite International Book Award and a Gold Medal from the Military Writers Society of America. Her novels have been used in schools and are available in hundreds of libraries including Harvard and the U.S. Naval Academy.

Today's guest author is Clara Grace Walker, telling us about her book Whispers, which sounds really spooky. I'm pretty sure I'd have to go to bed with the lights on after reading it.

Blurb

Lila Goodwell was only six when she saw her father’s ghost. As producer and star of Ghost Zone, Lila searches for evidence of an afterlife. For her Halloween special, she’s come to Cannibal Island; the most haunted place on Earth.

Sam Peterson has suffered the worst heartbreak life has to offer, losing his wife and children in a tragic shipwreck. Since then he’s shut himself away from the world, conducting top-secret research for the Department of Defense. Fate brings Lila Goodwell into Sam’s life when she comes to search for ghosts. As the attraction between Sam and Lila heats up, so do strange occurrences on the island. Lila is determined to unravel the mystery of Cannibal Island, and Sam is determined to stop her. What neither of them knows is there are sinister forces at work…forces that threaten their lives.

Excerpt

Cannibal IslandA Privately Owned, Uninhabited Island 50 Miles West of NassauLila Meets SamLila Goodwell flew out the door of the Dancy mansion, tightening the belt on her silk robe. “Hello!” Her voice shattered quiet surroundings as she ran down the trail leading to the beach. The cast meeting must have started without her. “Where is everyone?”

Late morning sun blazed through the treetops onto the dirt path, its loose sand slipping beneath her fluffy slippers, making it hard to run and keep her balance. “Hello!” She called out again, and heard only squawking birds in response. They made a ruckus in the trees, taking flight in sweeping circles. “Armani! Jeff! Tiffany!”

As creator, star and co-producer of Ghost Zone, sleeping sixty-two minutes through her alarm set the worst example possible. “Can anybody hear me?” She hurried faster down the trail, heart pounding in her ears. She’d never been late for a meeting in her life.

Running faster now, she reached the sand dunes, and her feet pulled out of her slippers, tripping her up in the hot sand. She landed on her knees in a spray of dirt, coughing, and gagging on what tasted like grit. Less than a second ticked by before she jumped back up, stuffed her feet back into her slippers, and continued running.

The pier came into view ahead. Clustered around the dock, she spotted her cast at last, standing with their backs to her. She waved to them, calling out, “I’m here!”

No one turned around, and pulled alongside the 100-foot wooden pier, she saw the reason why. A magnificent, very large yacht gleamed in the morning sun. Bigger and grander than the Vortex she and her cast had arrived on, this new vessel said one word to even the casual observer: loaded.

Polished bright white, its name shone in gold letters on its side…Miranda II.

Sam Peterson’s boat. The realization came quickly, sucking wind from her lungs. It looked just like the photograph in the magazine article she’d read about his tragic loss. An obvious copy of the one that went down.​Sam Peterson; the elusive, mysterious billionaire she’d been trying to track down for months. And here he was. And she was here. On his island. Without his permission.

Bestselling romantic suspense author, Clara Grace Walker, writes about fictional worlds populated with characters living out soap opera style lives. Expect sex, murder, and more than a little back-stabbing inside the pages of her books.

Her debut series, Desire Never Dies, is comprised of three books, Gratification, Gossip and Redemption, all of which have made their mark on Amazon’s bestseller list. People and circumstances are rarely what they seem in these stories, and getting to the truth can be a dangerous thrill-ride. So hop on board and hang on by your fingertips as you read your way to Happily Ever After.

Currently, Clara is immersed in the romance, danger and intrigue of her four-book series, Sex and Secrets.

Today we are in for a treat with USA Today Bestselling author Stephanie Queen. Her latest romantic thriller, Beachcomber Enemy, comes out on May 17th, but we get a sneak peek today. The cover itself is fantastic. I can only imagine what's between the pages. Let's find out more together.

Private Investigation partners Dane Blaise & Shana George barely escape the attempt on their lives. Dane insists they need to go on the run as ghosts to track down their killers. It's the best way he knows to protect Shana from harm.

Shana is uneasy with the plan. Something doesn't feel right about it, as if their killer knows they're alive and Dane & Shana are playing into his hands. Should she defy Dane's plan?

They need to find out who is out to get them. Dane assumes it's an enemy from his past. But could it be an enemy from Shana's past with a score to settle?

Excerpt

Shana stared at him, green eyes glittering under spiky wet eyelashes, drops of seawater beading down her temples, down her forehead, dripping off the end of her perfect nose and her extravagant lips. She wasn’t going to answer him. As they both held onto the leg of the pier, hidden by the shadows, Dane knew they couldn’t stay long. People would come looking for them. Sooner than later. He cringed when he saw the state police vehicle careen into the yard past the fire trucks, onto the lawn. Captain Colin Lynch jumped from the car. Their good friend—his soon-to-be best man—went straight for the fire chief to talk.

Cap would be concerned. He’d find out how the fire started and he’d be looking for them.

There was no way Dane wanted him to find them here, in the harbor.

He’d let Cap know they were alive and well in his own time. Not now.

“We’re dead as far as our would-be killer is concerned.” Dane stated the obvious. “We’ll be safer that way. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t going after the f—cker. It means we’ll have to do our investigation under the radar.”

She nodded, still staring at the scene unfolding on shore. He pulled her arm off the pier. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Where are we going?” It was a reasonable question but he had no answer. Yet.

USA Today Bestselling Author Stephanie Queen is a romantic at heart and a writer by nature. So of course, she loves creating stories where the good guys always win. She writes the romantic thriller detective series, Beachcomber Investigations set on Martha’s Vineyard and the sexy contemporary romance series, Margo & George set in New York City, as well as other series and stand-alone novels. So far she’s published more than 35 novels and novellas and has no plans to stop.

You can check out all her books at www.StephanieQueen.com​Although she's lost count of all the jobs she had before she settled on being a novelist, her favorite was selling cookies as a Keebler Elf. She is a graduate of UConn (go Huskies!) and Harvard U. She lives in New Hampshire with her family and her cat, Kitty.

This week on Thriller Thursday the action gets super hot with D.W. Maroney's novel, Status: MISSING. Even the blurb gives you white-knuckles. I can hardly wait to read it myself.

Blurb

No one believed it was possible to commandeer an airliner in flight from a land-based location, then Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared over the Indian Ocean, giving rise to The Drone Theory among U.S. intelligence agencies. Since that fateful flight, dozens of other airliners have gone missing without a trace. Is it coincidence? Or is there something sinister at work?

The Drone Theory Taskforce has one directive: Determine whether U.S. Top Secret technology—lost when a CIA drone went down in Iran—is being used to hijack airliners in flight, and if so, recover the technology.

Air Force Intelligence Officer Major Megan Sloan doesn’t believe in coincidences. She’s determined to get her hands on the technology and the person(s) responsible for this current reign of terror.

When a U.S. Government jet carrying top-level officials to Guam is rerouted mid-flight to Pyongyang, The Drone Theory shifts from supposition to cold, hard reality. The stakes have never been higher. Will they locate the source of the signals controlling the aircraft? Will Major Sloan be in time to recover the technology and return control of the plane to the flight crew before the incident escalates into World War III?

Excerpt

“Talk to me, Jude.”

“It was sheer luck, ma’am. I could be wrong.”

“But you don’t think you are.”

“No, ma’am. It’s the same ping as before, only this time the intercept program we added recognized it and began the trace immediately. Not like the other times when all we could do was sit here with our thumbs up our asses.”

Jude’s phone chirped. He picked up the receiver and handed it to me. “Hello. Director Lowell?”

A less than friendly voice came over the line. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”

I refused to flinch at the gruff remark. I’d roust the president and his entire cabinet out of bed if it meant preventing another plane from going down. “Sorry to bother you, Director Lowell, but we’ve got a situation here.”

“What kind of situation, and where is here?”

“You’ve been read in on The Drone Theory?”

There was a pause on the line. I imagined the man mentally sorting through his intelligence briefings for the appropriate reference. “That’s rubbish. An impossible scenario.”

“Not impossible, and we’re about to prove it.”

“Who did you say you are?”

“Major Megan Sloan—Air Force Intelligence. I’ll have someone from the Pentagon call you to confirm.” I glanced up at Sanchez who stood sentry. He nodded and picked up the nearest secure line. Lots of people were going to lose sleep tonight. “When they do, I need your full cooperation. We have reason to believe another plane is about to go missing, only this time, we know which one it is.” I heard another phone ring in the background.

“I’ll hold while you answer your other line.” I nodded my thanks to Sanchez who stood with a phone receiver pressed to his ear. Sanchez smiled at me. After speaking to the person at the end of the line, he hung up. While I waited for Lowell to get his ass chewed on his other line, I waved Sanchez over.

“Get me the info on the flight.” Other members of the task force were filing in now, looking sleepy, tired, and pissed off. “Grab as many people as you need. I want everything.”

“Aren’t you jumping the gun?” Jude asked. “We aren’t even sure the plane is in trouble.”

“Do you really believe everything is fine?”

Jude shook his head. “No.”

“I didn’t think so.”

The director clicked back on the line. “What do you need, Major Sloan?”

Amazing what a phone call from the right person could accomplish. “Global 2455. Somebody needs to make contact with the flight deck. Try the radio first. If it doesn’t work, try the secondary system.” Every airliner came equipped with the text-based Aircraft Communications and Reporting System (ACARS). While radio communications were mostly restricted to talking with air traffic controllers, ACARS allowed ground-to-aircraft communications regarding weather, routing, and gate assignments, as well as functioning as a backup system if radio communications were lost. “We need every commercial aircraft within five hundred miles of Hawaii to try to contact Global 2455 on Guard Frequency. That’s 121.5 if you don’t know.”

“I know what it is, damn it,” the director grumbled. “I’ll get right back to you.” He clicked off.

I passed the handset to Jude. “Sanchez! What have you got?”

More office manager than analyst, Sanchez hustled over with his familiar yellow pad.

“Shit.”

When Jude swore, it almost never meant anything good. “What?”

“It’s gone. Disappeared.”

I searched the wall of monitors for the tiny pinpoint representing Global flight 2455. “Just like that? It’s gone?”

“Just like that,” Jude confirmed. “Just like the others. Here one second, gone the next.”

Except we hadn’t been watching the others when they disappeared. We’d found out after the fact on the others. This was different. Because we’d been watching this particular radar blip, we might have a chance of locating the plane in a timely manner. And, if our operating theory proved correct, we might find the person or persons behind the missing planes.

“Last known position?” I signaled Sanchez to write it down. With no radar image to draw from, Jude rattled off the coordinates. “We need eyes on this plane, or what’s left of it, right now. Sanchez, get Rodgers on the horn again.”

As a young student living in the suburbs of Dallas at the time of the Kennedy assassination D.W. Maroney grew up on a steady diet of conspiracy theories. To this day, D.W. still loves a good mystery and believes the truth of any event lies somewhere between the eyewitness accounts and the historical retelling. D.W. admits to being the only student who paid attention when the school librarian explained the use of the card catalog and other research materials. Where others saw only tedium, D.W. saw clues that would lead to fascinating facts hidden within the tomes and periodicals lining the shelves. During downtime, D.W. enjoys sorting through piles of musty old papers, scouring the depths of the internet, and looking for the one thing everyone else has overlooked.

Thriller Thursday is becoming the place to find the best romantic suspense/thriller authors! My Kindle is going to be full-to-bursting from these writers. Today is a good example. We have the awesome Kylie Brant here today with her novel, Cold, Dark Places, about a serial killer. This promises to be a riveting read. Just read the excerpt to see what I mean.

Blurb

From the bestselling author of Pretty Girls Dancing comes a shattering serial-killer thriller about revenge, deliverance, and survival.Cady Maddix survived a brutal upbringing—emotionally scarred but hardened—with a will for self-preservation. Hunting fugitives has given her life purpose and control. But when the Deputy US Marshal returns home to care for her Alzheimer’s-stricken mother, a new case stirs old memories.

Child killer Samuel Aldeen has broken out of a nearby facility for the criminally insane, and the authorities believe he was aided by accomplices, both inside and out. Enlisted to track him down, Cady follows an unexpected lead. Her name is Eryn Pullman, a young woman recently released from a neighboring psychiatric facility, a mentally fragile survivor of childhood abuse, and Aldeen’s next designated victim.​To save Eryn’s life, Cady must work fast to uncover the unimaginable link between predator and prey—even as it pulls her into the cold dark places of her own past.

Excerpt

Pushing open her front door, Cady stepped inside. Then stopped still, disturbed by something she could only sense.

She drew her weapon and flipped on the light inside the doorway, scanning the area carefully. The room looked just as she’d left it. The comfortable couch held only a throw she hadn’t bothered to refold the last time she’d used it. Her gaze traveled across the room to the flat screen TV and to the double set of bookshelves flanking it. They were crowded with rows of books in back, a few pictures and other items arranged in front of them. One of the photos was slightly out of place, as if it had been picked up and then replaced carelessly. A marksmanship award she’d won last year sat a bit crookedly on its stand.

She moved on to her bedroom where she discovered the top drawer in her dresser wasn’t quite closed. A small thing, but coupled with the ever-so-slightly displaced items in the other room, her earlier foreboding rushed back tenfold. Someone had been inside her house.

Cady went to the back door and unlocked it before switching on the security light mounted next to the screen door. She made her way to the spare bedroom’s window she’d found unlocked and shone her light over the old storm covering it. The clips were in place. But she could see where the old paint had been scraped next to them, as if they had recently been forced into a vertical position before being locked again.

It would be difficult to miss the fresh pry marks at both bottom corners of the window.

She shifted the beam to the ground, but there were no indentations there. No footprints. But she could imagine the scene that had taken place sometime while she was away today. A person standing right in this spot, loosening the storm so it would be easy to remove at a later time. A time of his choosing.

Kylie Brant is a #1 Amazon bestseller. She's penned over forty award-winning romantic suspense and psychological suspense novels. She's a three-time Rita nominee, has been nominated for five Romantic Times awards, and is a RT Career Achievement award winner. She has twice been awarded the overall Daphne du Maurier award for best mystery and suspense novel.

Kylie's books have been published in thirty-two countries and translated into eighteen languages.

The amazing H.B. Moore is my guest today, featuring one of her Omar Zagouri thrillers, on sale this month for only .99! What a great way to be introduced to an awesome thriller series. Check it out below.

Blurb

Betrayed by her father. Kidnapped by her brother. Only one chance to survive.

Omar Zagouri should have known that the hunt for an ordinary art thief in London would end up being far from ordinary. Abducted and carted across several countries until he’s locked up in the middle of Jordan’s desert, Omar becomes the target of an underground crime organization that dates back to the Crusaders era.

As Omar works to uncover the deadly secrets that connect centuries of deceit, he finds himself trying to prevent a scheduled honor killing from turning into another tragedy, while exposing the ancient crime organization for generations of lethal corruption.

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONEAL KARAK, CITY OF JORDAN

Taheer Sayid picked up his cell phone and selected his most trustworthy contact. The phone call would take only moments, but the result would teach the entire Sayid tribe what honor meant. He shut his third-floor office window, blocking out the rising heat of the Jordanian desert’s summer morning. He and his only brother owned the bank in the Jordanian city of Al Karak, and having started it three decades before, now they were among the town’s wealthy elite.

“Yes?” Yamil answered.

“We have proof,” Taheer said into the phone.

“Four male witnesses?” Yamil asked.

Taheer sighed. Yamil was a stickler for rules. An execution couldn’t be ordered unless there were four respected male witnesses to the crime. In this case, there were actually no witnesses, but Taheer knew his daughter was guilty. He had plenty of video footage of her leaving her university apartment more than once after midnight, and he also possessed other, less legally-binding evidence. There could be only one reason for his daughter’s midnight forays. Worst-case scenario, Aamira was no longer a virgin. Or else she’d been tainted in some way by a relationship with a man other than her fiancé. Taheer was still trying to find out whom she was meeting. But now it was time to put the execution order into motion. She would be returning home for summer very soon.

Taheer would have no problem bribing four men to sign the official document. That way, if the killing were questioned by the authorities, the paperwork would already be in place. And once the paperwork was submitted to the judge, another bribe would be offered to bypass a trial.

“Yes, the witnesses are ready to sign,” Taheer told Yamil. “When can you complete the task?”

Heather B. Moore is a USA Today bestselling author of more than fifty publications. She writes historical novels and thrillers under pen name H.B. Moore. Heather attended Cairo American College in Egypt, the Anglican School of Jerusalem in Israel, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Brigham Young University in Utah. Heather is represented by Dystel, Goderich, and Bourret.

We're in for a real treat today with romantic suspense author Stella MacLean and her book Unimaginable. It sounds so good, I'm sure all of us will be putting it on our TBR lists.

Blurb

A killer is circling Rachel Moore’s life waiting for the perfect moment to attack.Dr. Andrew King is seeking redemption for a past he can’t forget.Rachel and Andrew are forced to face a killer seeking his final act of revenge.

Patient Services VP Rachel Moore’s professional life is threatened when attacks at Mercy Hospital put adolescent psychiatric patients in danger. With the help of the police, Rachel takes action, but when the investigation comes up empty Rachel's motives are questioned due to what appears to be her inaction where the children are concerned. Midnight phone calls, and angry parents create a backdrop for the murder of a woman in the basement of the hospital. When an attempt is made on Rachel’s life, she is forced to choose: let down her guard and allow a stranger to help her, or risk another attack on her life.

Dr. Andrew King is not exactly a stranger, but he doesn’t meet the qualifications for man of the year either. Andrew's past includes the death of his wife during which he was investigated for his involvement. Those responsible for the deaths at Mercy Hospital plant false evidence leading police to consider Andrew as a possible suspect. Meanwhile the killer is in the perfect position to kill again...unless Rachel and Andrew can expose who at Mercy Hospital is carrying out a deadly plan designed to destroy everything Rachel has ever loved and cared for in her life.

Excerpt

My name is Rachel Moore. My life began in a hospital, and I swear that someday I’m going to make my escape from institutions like this one. Certainly not today, but one day soon.

Looking down the back slope of forty, my most meaningful relationship is with my retirement savings plan—my ticket out of here when the nest egg is plump enough.

My dream occupation is to eat chocolates, go to spas and spend my days searching out the best antiques for my two-story, center-hall Georgian home I’ve mortgaged my life to own.

Meanwhile, back at reality central I’m the VP responsible for all patient care services at Mercy Hospital. In other words, I’m the go-to-gal for most in the building.

Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do for a living; really, I do.

My state of mind isn’t helped much by the fact that I was yanked awake last night, not once, but twice by some idiot who had the audacity to call my number way past my bedtime.

The first time it happened, I was feeling pretty generous and forgiving, even though he didn’t offer an apology or say anything for that matter… Weird. Even weirder, it was the third night in the past week I’d received one. After the second call last night I got up and showered because sleep was out of the question.​Weirdos aside, what really has me caressing my worry beads this morning is the teenager discovered wandering in the basement of our hospital four days ago. Melissa Matthews managed to leave the Adolescent Psychiatric Unit without anyone on the unit being aware of it. I’ve arranged for a member of hospital security to be posted around the clock outside the unit until I get a chance to discuss this with Dr. Carson. It’s not that I’m expecting another adolescent to catch the wander bug; I need to reassure the parents of the other adolescents in the unit that we are looking out for their teenagers.

And donContemporary romance, romantic suspense, and women’s fiction are Stella MacLean's favorite writing genres. Connecting with readers is the single most important reason for writing stories. As a writer she is never at a loss for story ideas because so much of life contains a story. In her other life she is a nurse and a Certified Management Accountant.

Stella loves sitting down at her computer and tapping away at the keyboard, as her fantasy life comes alive on the page. She gets to do whatever she wants with her characters, have them say whatever she wants them to say…all those things she's never been clever enough to say in real life.She loves clothes, movies, Starbucks coffee, the sound of silence, peanut butter and a good laugh. She doesn't like crowds, noise, hot weather, or spam email.

Whoa, hang on to your hats this week, folks. Explosive Touch, by C.F. Francis, sounds like one heck of an exciting read. Check out the blurb and excerpt below. I'm sure you'll agree. Get those one-clicks ready, because you won't want to miss this action-packed romantic suspense.

Blurb

Welcome to the tropics, where the weather isn’t the only thing that gets HOT!

Bombings, worlds apart, throw two survivors together. Troy, a mental wreck and physically damaged due to his last tour as a Special Ops soldier, is asked to protect Shayne from an unknown enemy. Is he up to the task? Can he keep his emotional distance from a woman who has become all too important to him?

Shayne Peterson cheated death when she survived a bombing at a Tampa country club. Still, she fights a nightly battle against the terror of being trapped under the rubble and her inability to identify the man who left the deadly package. After a move to Sanibel Island, she finds herself surrounded by former Green Berets. She feels safe—until it becomes obvious that she’s not.

A suicide bomber in an Afghani marketplace left Troy McKenzie, Special Forces soldier and former ladies’ man, disfigured. He should have died that day—punishment for his arrogance and misplaced trust. Unable to get past the memories and the boy he couldn’t save, Troy returns to Sanibel, seeking the support of his former brothers-in-arms.

Soon Shayne and Troy are battling their unexpected, and ill-timed, attraction to one another while staying one step ahead of a killer.

Excerpt

Shayne Peterson gagged as she battled her way out of the darkness. She recognized the smells of charred wood and spilled liquor. But it was something stronger, more acrid, that had her retching. Attempting to roll to her side to vomit, she stopped when she couldn’t move anything below her hips. She was trapped. Panic quickly bubbled up inside her, but she forced it down along with the bile in her throat.

Her legs were firmly pinned to the floor. Whatever entrapped her also had created a vacuum over her upper body. She couldn’t move her legs, but she could feel her toes. Thank God. Her head hurt like a bitch. Every inch of her body cried out, some parts more than others. The fact that she felt pain was a positive omen. She was still in one piece.

Her back and legs were damp and cold where her clothes clung to her skin. Blood? Please, not blood.

Get it together, girl, her dad snapped. Shaking her head, she tried to clear her thoughts. Her dad was dead. He’d been gone ten years. Still, dead or alive, he was right. Whatever had happened, panic wouldn’t help. She gulped in a long breath through her mouth to avoid the nauseating scents. Then a second. A few breaths later, she’d calmed enough to focus on her surroundings.​Think. She’d been leaving the country club when she’d noticed another bartender breaking down a cash bar that had been set up for a charity event. She’d stopped to help. Right after the man left for the storeroom with a case of liquor, it happened. A blast. She’d felt it before she’d heard it. An invisible force knocked the air from her lungs before the unbelievable heat had engulfed her. Then blackness.

C. F. Francis is a native Floridian. Her knowledge of the area makes her settings come alive. Born in Tampa and raised on the “gold coast”, she now calls Southwest Florida her home. Her stories take place primarily on Sanibel Island but as she loves to explore, other parts of the state occasionally serve a backdrop for her stories.

Francis began writing in 2015 and published her first book, Sanctuary Island, in 2016. Lovers Key followed in 2017 (placing 2nd in a national competition). Her newest novel, Explosive Touch, came out in February 2019.

Her background includes tourism, legislative, law and healthcare. She has a special relationship with several members of the military including Green Berets and Army Intelligence. They volunteer their knowledge to keep her novels honest.

While visiting his brother, Daniel enjoys getting to know Heather and picnicking with her and her dog in Pleasant Prairie, Texas. He’d rather spend more time with Heather, but he soon gets called back to his office in Atlanta to investigate a new virus. Mutated from the Rift Valley Fever in Kenya, the more deadly virus not only sickens people, but causes sterility.

Despite being recently divorced, Heather is thrilled to discover she’s finally pregnant and hopes to carry the baby to term.

Delighted to visit Daniel in Atlanta, she becomes infected by a bioterrorist spreading the virus in the air. She is devastated by her miscarriage and determined to help Daniel hunt and stop whoever is dispersing the virus. She interviews patients at the hospital for her paper.

Following tips, she and Daniel travel to Dallas and New Orleans, and even board a Caribbean cruise ship in their search. Heather and Daniel enjoy being together on the cruise as their developing love for each other deepens, but each holds a secret threatening to tear them apart.

Carolyn Rae (a/k/a Carolyn Rae Williamson) Her passion is writing romantic suspense and delving into the minds of stalkers, bombers, and terrorists that threaten the course of true love. Her profile and travel articles have appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, Positive Parenting, AAA World, Hawaii and Alaska, and Romance Writer's Report. She has worked as a teacher in a federal prison, done research for a mincemeat company, and worked as a paralegal for several attorneys.

Today on the blog is author Victoria Sue and her new release, suspense thriller In Safe Hands. If you like action and adventure, along with diverse characters, then this is one author and book you don't want to miss.

Blurb

Former helicopter pilot Maverick Delgardo’s injuries ended his Air Force career, leaving him bitter and one drink away from becoming an alcoholic. When his sister asks for his help on a private protection case to babysit a disgraced pop star, Mav reluctantly agrees.

Deacon Daniels, onetime lead singer and idol to his teenage fans, saw his career and reputation ruined when a reporter’s exposé led to a devastating scandal. Without money or a job, a heartbroken Deacon has lost custody of his baby niece. And just when he thinks his life can’t get any worse, a stalker’s threatening messages escalate to murder.

Mav only agreed to one meeting, but his protective instincts kick in, along with an attraction to Deacon. When the body count increases, however, Mav is unsure he is up to the task of protecting Deacon from a killer. But it is too late for Mav to step away, now that he’s lost his heart, and he must find the strength to reassure Deacon and his niece that they are in safe hands no matter the cost.

The pained cry pierced the dust cloud rolling in over the desert, and the smell of coffee--wait, what, coffee?—tickled his nose. The deep breath his lungs screamed for flooded his system, and Mav opened his eyes. He saw his sister’s living room, the stone fireplace with the pictures of his niece from a baby all the way up to junior year. And the new photo. The one he hadn’t noticed before. The one of him walking across the tarmac five or so years ago. All of them in flight suits. Cass and him laughing at some joke Charlie had told. In the oppressive Somalian desert they’d have been happier in board shorts, but he doubted Uncle Sam would be. His sister must have found it and innocently thought to display it, and it had been enough to set him off. Dumped him in the rabbit hole that was his life. Some days were harder to climb out than others.

“Do you need any help?” Jamie asked gently.

He shook his head and reached for his leg.

His plastic one.

Which was the reason he wasn’t still in the Air Force being useful, and the reason all he could do to help his sister was sit behind a desk. He couldn’t protect anyone anymore.

Victoria Sue fell in love with love stories as a child when she would hide away with her mom’s library books and dream of the dashing hero coming to rescue her from math homework. She never mastered math but never stopped loving her heroes and decided to give them the happy ever afters they fight so hard for.

She loves reading and writing about gorgeous boys loving each other the best—and creating a family for them to adore. Thrilled to hear from her readers, she can be found most days lurking on Facebook where she doesn’t need factor 1000 sun-cream to hide her freckles.

Author

Just starting out in this writing process. It takes over a person's life. After all, there are no set hours, no specific place to go, no definitive wardrobe. But the worlds you can visit? They make up for everything!